PIB Headquarters
CBSE LAUNCHES CYBER SAFETY HANDBOOK ADVISING STUDENTS TO LIMIT ONLINE FRIENDSHIPS
The Ministry of Human Resource Development had last week released the Handbook Cyber safety - A handbook for students of secondary and senior secondary school . Releasing the book in New Delhi, Union HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank said it is prepared to create awareness about Cyber security among the students. The handbook has topics in cyber safety, such as cyberbullying, social exclusion, intimidation, defamation, emotional harassment, online sexual abuse, cyber radicalization, online attack and fraud, and online enticement.
It will also introduce the nine elements of digital citizenship — digital access, literacy, communication, etiquette, health and well being, rights, freedom and responsibility, security and law.
The Central board for secondary education-CBSE handbook also explains cyber bullying and cyber stalking and gives details of good practices to be followed by students online .
With the students getting increased digital exposure due to lockdown, the handbook contains useful contacts for students to report bullying, harassment and unlawful activities online.
During the corona virus induced Lockdown, the colleges/ schools resort to online classes, by which the students were exposed to other digital challenges . This prompted the CBSE to launch this cyber safety book for class 9 to 12 students which give a detailed guidelines for students as well as parents, listing the dos and don'ts and other guidelines to understand the sensitivity of the issue.
While giving the feedback about this to FOB Coimbatore, City Commissioner of Police Thiru Sumit Saran IPS said that it is a good initiative from CBSE to come up with the cyber safety measures to the Teenage Children. Since there is no minimum age of digital consent in India, the Police department especially the cyber crime cell in Coimbatore is closely watching for violations and complaints . Coimbatore city police plans to have a massive awareness campaign in schools as in most cases, victims are 14 to 18 years of age and they are victimized by the known person or by strangers with the victims' explicit photographs being circulated in social media. Therefore they have to be sensitized about the dangers of online relationships, he added.
During the lockdown it was the major concern of the parents that the children were spending most of the time in the online classes. The schools in Coimbatore went to the Calendar year with the online classes to finish off the portions without burdening children when they join back schools after lock down. This cyber safety book is welcomed by most of the parents and the students also.
Smt Dhanalakshmi from Sulur Coimbatore says this book will be helpful to the students to learn about the online dos and don'ts. She also thanked HRD Ministry and the Prime Minister for the initiative.
Sree Navami, a 12th Std student says this cyber safety book is useful for the students as it offers an insight into the potential dangers online. She also said that she is using the National Test Abhyaas App for the NEET exam.
The contents of the cyber safety book explains of the Digital access, Digital literacy, Digital communication, Digital commerce, Digital etiquette, Digital health and wellness, including Digital rights, freedom, and responsibility and digital security and law in a very simple language to make the teenagers understand the world in a better way.Not just during lockdown, the education sector particularly the schools are gearing up to make digital classes a prominent mode of communication and the launch of the cyber safety handbook by CBSE is a timely and caring initiative to prevent the students from falling prey to cyber crimes.
Commissioner of Police says it is good initiative to sensitise on online friendships
Dhanalekshmi says the handbook helps the students to learn the online do and don'ts
Sree Navami says handbook offers insight into the Potential dangers online